NISAR launch slips to 2025

LAS VEGAS — The launch of a joint U.S.-Indian radar imaging satellite tv for pc won’t happen earlier than February 2025 due to work on the spacecraft’s antenna and orbital constraints, NASA mentioned July 29.

In a weblog submit, NASA mentioned it was finishing work on the big deployable antenna on the NASA-ISRO Artificial Aperture Radar (NISAR) spacecraft, which had been shipped again from India to the US earlier this yr. NASA mentioned in March it wanted so as to add a “particular coating” to the antenna after analyses discovered that the reflector might encounter higher-than-expected temperatures whereas in its stowed configuration for launch.

On the time, NASA mentioned it could present a brand new launch date for NISAR on the finish of April. Nevertheless, the company supplied no updates on the standing of the work on the spacecraft or a brand new launch date till now.

The replace got here after a SpaceNews inquiry concerning the standing of the mission prompted by stories in Indian media that the mission, as soon as scheduled to launch this spring, was now not anticipated to launch this yr. In a July 24 response to a query from the Lok Sabha, one of many homes of the Indian parliament, Jitendra Singh, the federal government minister accountable for area, listed the upcoming missions and launches deliberate by the nation in area in 2024. The listing notably excluded NISAR.

NASA acknowledged in its replace that the work on the antenna, which is 12 meters in diameter when totally deployed, was nearing completion. That work included putting in reflecting tape in addition to “different precautionary measures” to mitigate temperature will increase when the antenna is stowed. The antenna can be shipped again to India as soon as testing of these modifications is full, the place will probably be reinstalled on the NISAR spacecraft.

NASA didn’t disclose a timetable for that work, stating that after the antenna is reinstalled on the spacecraft “a launch readiness date can be decided by ISRO, in coordination with NASA.”

Nevertheless, the assertion famous that the launch can not happen between early October and early February 2025 “as a result of that launch window would put the satellite tv for pc into durations of alternating daylight and shadows” that may create temperature fluctuations affecting deployment of the antenna’s increase. That implies that the spacecraft won’t launch earlier than February given the work remaining to arrange NISAR for launch.

NISAR is the primary Earth science spacecraft collaboration between NASA and ISRO and represents one of many largest partnerships between the businesses on the whole, with NASA alone spending greater than $1 billion in formulation and improvement of the mission. NASA is offering an L-band radar and engineering payload, whereas ISRO is offering the S-band payload, spacecraft bus and GSLV launch car.

The radars on NISAR can be able to superior radar imaging to help a variety of Earth science wants, from measuring the move charges of glaciers to volcanic exercise. The spacecraft will be capable of map all the Earth each 12 days.

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